


Dying in L.A.

by iicconics



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Demogorgon - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, disappearing children, i haven’t written too much of this one so, mind flayer - Freeform, poggers, three oc’s in this story besties
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iicconics/pseuds/iicconics
Summary: Danielle Marino doesn't know what she was expecting when she moved to Hawkins, but fighting some sort of otherworldly creature with four other kids she had just met was definitely not it.Let's just say Hawkins, Indiana is a whole lot different than Los Angeles.
Relationships: Dustin Henderson & Original Female Character(s), Eleven | Jane Hopper & Original Female Character(s), Jonathan Byers & Original Female Character(s), Lucas Sinclair & Original Female Character(s), Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Original Female Character(s), Mike Wheeler/Original Female Character(s), Nancy Wheeler & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character(s) & Original Female Character(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Steve Harrington & Original Female Character(s), Will Byers & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Extended Summary

**Author's Note:**

> yoooo more stories besties 
> 
> tumblr: platonicavengers  
> wattpad: iicconics

Moving from Los Angeles, California, to Hawkins, Indiana, was definitely a huge change for Danielle Marino.

After her father's untimely death, her mother, Patricia, thought it would be best to move her two daughters away from where they had grown up and get a brand new start, almost halfway across the country.

Dani didn't want to move. She had so many friends back in California, she was even considered one of the most popular girls at her school! So when her mother told her that they would be leaving in a month, it's safe to say that she was less than excited.

Her older sister, Christine, on the other hand, couldn't be happier. Not only had she just lost her father, but she had just found out that her boyfriend of two years had been cheating on her. Her hometown had too many bad memories attached to it, so she was glad to start anew.

Now in Hawkins, Dani has yet to truly find her place in the new city. Back in LA, everybody at her school loved her and thought she was so cool, but it's different now. She can't even think of one true friend that she has now, just some people she's talked to when she's been paired up with them in a class.

Christine was slightly better off. She had become extremely close with two girls her age, named Nancy Wheeler and Barbara Holland. You could even say that the three were best friends! They clicked almost immediately, and you would think that Christine had known the two girls their whole lives.

With one sister happy with her new life, and the other near devastated, it's hard to imagine how just one week could change their lives. 

But, oh boy, one week is all it took.


	2. Prologue

"Christine, why do I have to go over there again? I don't even know any of those kids anyway!" Danielle whined, slumping back into the passenger seat.

Her older sister simply laughed as she turned into a neighborhood. "Because, Dani, Nancy has a brother that's your age and I think it's time for you to finally make some friends around here. I heard some of his friends are over at his house, too."

Dani huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're just dragging me over here because you wanted to hang out with Nancy and Mom didn't want to leave me at home alone!"

"Well, maybe that is part of why," Christine smirked, "But I'm serious, I really think you'd get along with them. They're good kids, Dani. Much better than the ones you had back in California."

"There was nothing wrong with them!"

"Dani, they tried to get you to climb onto the roof of the school and jump down into the swimming pool in 50°," Christine pointed out.

Danielle rolled her eyes, "I didn't actually do it, though," she mumbled.

Christine laughed, leaning over to ruffle her sisters hair as they pulled into the Wheeler's driveway. Danielle sighed, dreading having to go inside. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was nervous to meet the kids that her sister was telling her about. She had seen Mike around school before, but she had never spoken to him. So going over to his house before even being friends was definitely a bit much for Danielle.

"C'mon, Dani, let's go!" Christine dragged out the o sound in go, signaling her impatience towards the younger girl.

"Fine," Danielle groaned as she begrudgingly got out of the car, readjusting the pink headband resting in her hair. 

The two girls walked up to the front door, Christine ringing the doorbell with a bright smile across her lips, excited to see her friend. Danielle, on the other hand, had a slight frown, not wanting to go in.

An older woman, who Dani assumed was Nancy and Mike's mother, answered the door with a welcoming smile. "Oh, hello Christine! And you must be Danielle," the latter girl offered her a small smile, "Nancy is upstairs in her room, and I'll show you where the boys are, Danielle."

Christine thanked Mrs. Wheeler, then quickly started for the staircase. Danielle stepped inside, waiting for directions to where Mike and his friends are.

"They're right down here, dear," Mrs. Wheeler said as she led Danielle towards a staircase, presumably leading to a basement. Dani sent a smile to the older woman as she trotted down the wooden stairs.

The brunette grimaced as she heard loud shouts from beneath her. When she finally got down to the basement, all the boys went silent and stared straight at her. Danielle cleared her throat, embarrassed as they quickly turned away and acted as if nothing had happened.

All of the boys were sat around a small, wooden table with some sort of board game on top, or at least that's what it looked like to Danielle, "May I ask what exactly you all are doing down here?"

Mike turned to the girl, "We're playing Dungeons and Dragons, you can sit on that couch and watch if you want to!" The other three nodded in agreement.

Danielle silently walked over to the couch, sitting down as an awkward silence once again filled the room as she fiddled with her skirt. The silence, however, soon ended as the boys went back to their game. She managed to tune them out for a while, but her ears perked up as she heard Mike's words.

"Something's coming," he muttered, "Something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here."

The others leaned forward, clearly very interested in what Mike had to say.

The boy with the light brown hair, who Dani was almost positive was named Will Byers fearfully asked, "What is it?"

Danielle almost chuckled at how serious they all seemed over a simple game, but she managed to stifle it in.

"What's if it's the Demogorgon," Dustin Henderson, a boy with extremely curly hair, piped up, "Oh Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon!"

Lucas Sinclair, part of one of the few black families in Hawkins dismissed this, "Dustin, it's not going to be the Demogorgon!"

Danielle couldn't hold back her laughter at this, as she saw just how offended Dustin looked when Lucas shot down his idea.

After a few moments of no one saying a word, Mike breaks said silence with, "An army of Troglodytes charge into the chamber!" He slams down a figure onto the board, startling Danielle.

"The hell is a Troglodyte," she muttered under her breath, laughing softly.

"Troglodytes?" Dustin asks with a sense of bewilderment in his voice.

"Pft, I told you," Lucas adds.

Mike ignores their laughter, face turning serious, "Wait a minute. Did you hear that? That, that sound? Boom, boom, boom," he slaps the table, "That didn't come from the Troglodytes, no."

Danielle got up from her seat, walking closer to the table to watch what the boys were playing more closely. She found it kind of sweet how into it they all were.

"That came from something else," Mike finishes.

The boys all look at each other in worry.

Mike quickly slams down a two-headed figure onto the board, "The Demogorgon!"

Everyone groaned, making Danielle laugh as the boys all gave her dirty looks.

"We're in deep shit!"

"Will, your action!"

Will shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know!"

"Fireball him!"

"I'd have to roll a 13 or higher," Will counters.

"Too risky. Cast a protection spell," urges Dustin.

"Hey, I know I don't get much input here since I don't know what the hell's going on here, but I say to fireball the son of a bitch," Danielle smirks. Will looks up at her with an amused look on his face as the others ignore her.

"Don't be a pussy, fireball him!"

"No, cast protection!"

"Hey, I'm with the fireball kid-"

Mike slams his hands down on the table, "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you. Boom!"

"Fireball him!" Lucas shouts, Danielle nodding in agreement despite barely knowing what's happening.

"Another stomp, boom!"

"Cast protection!" Dustin screams, clearly agitated.

"He roars in anger!"

All of the boys started arguing and shouting, Dani just laughing and leaving them to bicker.

"Fireball!" Will calls out, rolling the die.

"Oh, shit. Where'd it go?"

"I don't know!"

"Is it a 13?"

"I said I don't know!"

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"

"Mike!" Mrs. Wheeler shouts from upstairs, grabbing both Mike and Dani's attention. 

Mike looked up from the floor, raising his arms, "Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign!"

Danielle laughed, shaking her head as she helped look for the small die located somewhere on the floor, which proved to be just as successful as looking for a needle in a haystack.

"You mean the end? Fifteen after," Mrs. Wheeler tapped her watch.

"Why do we have to go?" Will whined.

Dani's attention was soon brought to a small white cube on the carpet near the table, "Yo, guys, found your die over here!"

Will ran over, picking it up, "Oh, I got it! Thanks Danielle!" Dani winked, sending Will a small smile.

"Does the seven count," Will asked, walking up to Lucas.

"It was a seven?"

Will nodded.

"Did Mike see it?"

He shook his head.

"Then it doesn't count."

"Uh, not sure that's how it works," Dani laughed.

As the boys were all leaving, Danielle simply grabbed her windbreaker and started up the stairs. Dustin stayed behind, holding up a pizza box with one slice left, "Yo, hey, guys. Does anyone want this?"

Will and Lucas called out "No," in unison, while Danielle smirked and ran back and grabbed the slice, taking a bite out of it and thanking Dustin.

"Thank you for having me, Mrs. Wheeler," Danielle smiled as she reached the top of the stairs.

"Oh, you're welcome sweetie! I think your sister is planning on staying the night here, so I could give you a ride home if you needed?"

"No thank you, I have my bike in her car," Danielle politely declined, using her sweet young girl charm that was reserved for adults.

"Okay, well be safe!"

Danielle stepped out the door where all the boys were preparing to leave on their bikes. She walked over to Christine's car and got her car out of the back, setting it on the ground and switching on the light on the front.

As she was about to leave, she heard the conversation about Mike's sister, Nancy, but she chose not to listen. "Um, hey, Mike. I just wanted to say that I actually kind of had fun tonight, just so you know."

Mike smiled at her, "Well you can come back if you ever want to! We do this almost every night, so."

Danielle smirked, winking at him, "I might just have to take you up on that offer. See ya, Wheeler," she said, pedaling away, following the others.

She kept riding with them until each one of them turned into their driveways, until she had to go home herself. Her turn was right before Will's so as she bid him goodbye as she went home, she noticed him swerve his bike as she parked hers.

Little did she know, if she had just kept going a little further, she could've saved him.


	3. Chapter One

"Danielle, sweetie, it’s time for school!" Patricia yelled up the stairs, quickly jogging back to the kitchen to finish making breakfast for her and her youngest daughter.

"Coming, mom!" That was a lie. Dani had just scrambled out of bed, running to her closet to pick out her outfit. Quickly searching through the mess of clothes, she pulled out a plaid skirt with a white turtleneck, along with a simple black belt. Throwing it on, she slipped her white headband into place in her brunette locks.

She stumbled down the stairs, barely making it down without tripping. "Good morning, mom!"

Patricia chuckled, "Good morning, honey. How was the Wheeler's last night?"

Danielle shrugged, "It was pretty fun, in all honesty. They invited me to come back tonight, so I might do that."

"I'm glad that you're finally starting to make friends in this town," her mother smiled, putting the food she prepared onto plates and placing them onto the table.

Dani smiled, readjusting herself in her seat as she began to dig into the food. She never thought she'd admit it, but she was actually slightly excited for school, as she was looking forward to seeing the same four boys she saw last night.

"Good lord, Danielle, you eat any faster and you'll start choking," Patricia laughed.

Dani sheepishly looked up at her mother from her food, giggling as she slowed down.

A few minutes later, she finished eating and ran back upstairs to grab her backpack and put her shoes on. Running back down the staircase, she bid her mother a quick goodbye as she rushed out the front door, hopping onto her bike.

Danielle quickly left her bike in the racks as she locked it up, grabbing her backpack and heading inside to the school and filing into the large crowd of children.

"Oh, would you look at that! It's the little whore! James, look!" Troy yelled at the young girl. Rolling her eyes, Danielle ignored the bully and kept walking to her first class of the day, science with Mr. Clarke.

She settled into her seat towards the front of her room, throwing her bag down onto the floor next to her. In front of her was an empty desk, belonging to Will Byers, one of the boys at Mike's house last night. Soon came in Dustin, Lucas, and Mike, looking confused.

Eyes widening, Mike walked over to Danielle's desk. "Hey, um, Danielle, you didn't happen to see Will go home last night, did you?"

Danielle looked around at the three boys surrounding her, "Uh, no, I turned onto my driveway before he got to his house. Why? Is something wrong?"

Mike exchanged a look with his friends, shaking his head at Danielle. The girl shrugged, signaling that she was finished with their conversation.

Mr. Clarke walked in, so the boys shuffled to their seats, begrudgingly sitting down.

••

Class went by quickly, and the bell soon rang, Danielle immediately grabbing her bag and throwing it over her shoulders. She started to walk out of the door, but when she saw the three boys standing around Mr. Clarke's desk, she decided to stay back for a minute.

"What's going on here?" She asked, walking up to the group.

The boys ignored her, instead Mike eagerly asked their teacher, "Did it come?" Danielle just took notice of how enthusiastic the boys all looked, though she still had no clue as to why exactly they were so excited.

Mr. Clarke's lips turned down into a frown, a disappointed tone laced into his words, "Sorry, guys. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but..."

Mike, Dustin, and Lucas all looked down, their moods visibly darkening, causing Danielle to frown.

"It came!" The older man smiled.

They all cheered, quickly rushing out of the classroom. Instinctively, Mike wrapped his hand around Danielle's small wrist, pulling her along with them. A light shade of pink grew on her cheeks, as on Mike's.

They ran to the AV Room, somewhere that Danielle had never been in before. Mike let go of her wrist as him, Dustin and Lucas all surrounded some sort of radio-looking machine.

"Boys, I present to you, the Heathkit Ham Shack," Mr. Clarke semi-proudly announced, "Ain't she a beaut?"

Even if she didn't exactly understand what it was, Danielle was interested in whatever it is. It was shiny and new, the two best things for something to be.

"I bet you can talk to New York on this thing!" Dustin grinned, while they all fiddled with the buttons and knobs.

"Think bigger."

"California?" Lucas piped up.

"Bigger."

"Australia?" Mike asked, awestruck.

Mr. Clarke nodded, causing Danielle to laugh as they all immediately got much more excited.

"Oh, man! When Will sees this, he's totally gonna blow his shit!" Lucas exclaims, Danielle giggling as a result.

"Lucas," Mr. Clarke scolds.

"Sorry," the aforementioned boy timidly apologizes, before a smile quickly grows back onto his features.

Mike reached forward, putting on headphones and speaking, with a terrible Australian accent Danielle noticed, into the microphone, "Hello, this is Mike Wheeler, president of Hawkins Middle AV Club!"

"Mike, what in the world are you doing?" Danielle laughs, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

Dustin grabbed the headphones and microphone from Mike, also using an accent, "Hello, this is Dustin, and this is the secretary and treasurer of Hawkins Middle AV Club. Do you eat kangaroos for breakfast?"

Just as Lucas went to grab the objects from his curly haired friend, their principal walked in, silencing everyone in the small room.

"Sorry to interrupt, but, uh, may I borrow Michael, Lucas, and Dustin? Oh, yes, and Danielle, too," Principal Coleman requested, a emotionless expression on his face.

The kids all looked around at each other, confused as to what their principal could possibly want them for. They weren't in any trouble, were they?

••

The three boys and Danielle were all sat on the couch in the principal's office, currently being interrogated by a few of the officers from the police station, and the chief. It has come to their attention that Will Byers has gone missing.

Mike, Lucas and Dustin continued to argue over one another, trying to inform the officers of what they know. Danielle, however, sat silently on the couch, hands folded in her lap as she tried to wrap her mind around what had happened. She had just seen Will, just last night! They rode home together on their bikes! If she had just gone a little longer, maybe Will would be safe.

She tuned out all the noise around her, only listening once more when the chief asked her a question, "Did you see anything strange last night?"

She shook her head, eyes widening slightly, "N-No sir, I got to my house before he would've gotten to his, so I wouldn't have had a chance to."

The chief nodded, face emotionless as his whisper something to the officers beside him.

Mike perked up from next to Danielle, "We can help look for Will!"

"Yeah," Dustin agreed, Lucas nodding while Danielle continued to stay silent.

"No," Chief Hopper responded. The boys began to protest, voices overlapping each other which left Danielle confused and annoyed.

"No. After school, you are all to go home. Immediately. That means no biking around looking for your friend, no investigating, no nonsense. This isn't some Lord of the Rings book," ordered Hopper.

"The Hobbit," Dustin corrected, causing his friends to roll their eyes.

"Shut up!" Lucas shouted.

"Hey, stop it! Do I make myself clear?"

The children quieted, all staring timidly at the chief. Hopper rose from his chair, standing in front of the couch in order to make himself appear taller and more intimidating. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Mhm."


End file.
